Goradia confident in phenol market after US Sunoco plant purchase

HOUSTON (ICIS)--Goradia Capital expects to see the US phenol-acetone market remain strong after its purchase of Sunoco’s Haverhill, Ohio, plant, a company spokesman said on Thursday.

“This is one we like, quite a bit,” said a Haverhill spokesman. “It fits what we’ve been doing for the past several years.”

The spokesman said that Goradia will not take over operations and sales of the plant for a few months. When Goradia, which is the purchasing arm for Vinmar International, takes over, it expects to initially run the business in the same way Sunoco did.

“We are going to continue the business that Sunoco had,” the spokesman said. “We are confident in the market, and confident in our ability to run these kinds of businesses.”

A portion of the phenol-acetone production at Haverhill is directed toward bisphenol A (BPA), and a BPA buyer said it expects to continue to receive material out of the plant.

At least one acetone distributor is hoping that Goradia/Vinmar will be more active in the spot market than Sunoco was.

“I’m hoping that Vinmar will export a good deal of the acetone and clean up some of this business,” the distributor said.

However, most acetone market players were taking a wait-and-see approach to the purchase.